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I am a believer in dry beans. You can find these at pretty much any market. Soak them overnight in cold water, and when you awake the next morning, drain and rinse them and make something new. For me, it was coming up with a hearty bean soup that I could bring to work and have a healthy, and hearty meal to keep me going. This is my take on a chorizo and mixed bean soup. It serves a lot, can be made in a slow cooker if you wanted, and is a perfect meal for lunch or dinner. Heck, maybe even breakfast!

Let’s get started.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 1 lb mixed beans, dried
• 3 ribs of celery, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 links of chorizo, thick sliced
• 1 link of venison sausage, thick sliced (optional)
• 4 cups of vegetable stock
• 2 cups of water
• 1 whole bay leaf
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• 1 whole baguette

Begin by soaking the beans in cool water, overnight. The following morning, drain and rinse the beans, and set aside.

Heat a soup pot on medium heat. Add in the sliced sausages, and brown on all sides, about 12 minutes. The sausage will release some fat, and this is what we will cook our vegetables in. After they have browned,  add in the carrots, onions, celery, and garlic, and give a good stir. Let the vegetables begin to sweat, about 8 minutes. Stirring every now and then.

Add in the stock and water, give a good stir. Give a good pinch of salt and pepper to the mix, and toss in the bay leave. Let this come to a simmer, cover, and let it cook for 2 1/2 hours.

Give the soup a taste, and adjust any seasoning. That’s it. How easy was that for a pretty healthy meal?

When you are ready to serve, slice off a good nub of the baguette. Ladle in a generous amount of the bean soup, and eat with the bread. The result is a creamy textures from the beans, a bit of spice that balances that with the chorizo, and just a good old dunking element with the bread. Not only that, but now you have lunch and dinner throughout the week! Enjoy.

Serve with some nice crusty bread.

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Let’s get started on this simple, and comforting recipe.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 2 lbs of Chuck Beef, or a good stewing beef, cut into larger bite sized cubes
• 2 Russet potatoes, skinned, and cut into large bite size pieces
• 4 oz can of yellow curry paste (as seen here)
• 1 stick of cinnamon, approximately 4 inches long
• 1 star anise
• 4 cardamon pods, smashed
• 2 large shallots, quartered
• 1 large onion, cut into large bite size pieces
• 2 14 oz cans of coconut milk
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of roasted, unsalted peanuts
• Cooked Jasmine rice
• 2 tbsp canola oil

You are going to treat this entire dish like a stew. It will cook low and slow for a good couple of hours, but that is OK as you will be gifted with some wonderful and tantalizing aromas during that time.

Begin by adding your cubed beef a large mixing bowl. Add in the curry paste and beging mixing the meat around, making sure the paste adheres to all of the pieces. Once done, set aside, and wash your hands with warm water and soap.

Next, heat a dutch oven if you have one, if not a heavy pot on the stove, on medium heat. Add in the oil and let it come to temperature.

Toss in the cinnamon stick, star anise, and cardamon seeds and pods. Give a good stir.  This is probably your second great smell as the curry paste was probably the first inviting smell. Let this cook for about 3 minutes.

Toss in the shallots and the onions and give another good stir. Let this cook, stirring a few times along the way, for about 5 minutes.

Next, toss in the curried meat mixture, turning up the heat to a medium high. and give a good stir. Cook, untouched for about two minutes. Add in the chicken stock, and the coconut milk. Give another good stir.

Let this come to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and let it cook for about 1 1/2 hours.

Now, add in the fish sauce, brown sugar, peanuts, and the potatoes. Give a good stir, then cover again. Allow this to cook until the potatoes are fork tender. This will take about 30-40 minutes.

Give the broth a taste. Heavenly right?

Once the potatoes are cooked, the beef massaman curry is ready to serve.

To serve, add some cooked jasmine rice to a soup bowl. Using a ladle, ladle in some of the broth, potatoes, and beef over the top of the rice. Top with some more broth.

Not only the smell of this massaman curry is amazing, but I think you will agree that the flavor is also out of this world. Super tender beef, along with the chunky potatoes and onions. Well, what more do I have to say to get you make this one? Hope you enjoy.

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If you have never had, nor heard of pozole, it is basically a Mexican soup that has this wonderful corn, and is loaded with super tender pork, a simple stock (in this case a red stock), and is garnished with shredded cabbage, thinly sliced radish, and fresh cilantro. It is a soup to be reckoned with. In a nutshell, it is just plain awesome.

So lets get started on making this wonderful pozole rojo. Rojo by the way means red in Spanish.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 2 lbs of pork shoulder, cut into 2 inch cubes
• 6 Guajillo chile peppers, stems and seeds removed
• 4 Chile de Arbol peppers, stems and seeds removed
• 2 cups of boiling water
• 2 large, white onions, diced
• 1 head of garlic, thinly sliced
• 12 cups of water
• 2 cups of chicken stock
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tbsp Mexican oregano, crushed with your fingers
• 30 oz can of Hominy, or Mexican corn, drained
• 1 lime, quartered
• 10 radishes, thinly sliced
• 3 cups of green cabbage, thinly shredded
• Fresh cilantro
• Fresh Jalapeno peppers, seeds removed, sliced (optional)
• Tortilla chips or fresh corn tortillas (optional)

Begin by hydrating the peppers. Add the chile peppers to the two cups of boiling water, cover, and set aside for about 30 minutes.

Next, add the pork to your soup pot. Cover with the 12 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium. During this time, start skimming the brown foam that comes to the top of your stock, and start discarding that. Continue this process until you no longer have those impurities. Continue cooking the pork for about 2 1/2 hours, until the meat is super tender. Once the meat is cooked, remove the meat with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl. Let the meat cool so that you can handle it with your fingers.

Once the chiles have rehydrated, add them to a blender with about 1 cup of the water that they were hydrating in. Add the two cups of chicken stock to the blender, along with the salt, pepper, and garlic.  Blend until you have a very smooth mixture.

If you have a mesh strainer, now is the time to use it. Your goal is to add the blended chile mixture through the strainer, just in case there are any portions of the flesh from the chile peppers. Strain that directly into the pork stock and give a good stir. You now have the beginnings of your red stock, the rojo in pozole rojo. Give yourself a pat on the back, and carry onward.

Once the meat is cooled, tear it up into manageable bite size pieces and add it to the stock. Toss in the diced onions, as well as the strained hominy. Give it a good stir, bring it to a simmer, cover and let it cook for an additional two hours.

Once the soup is cooked, give a couple of good ladles of the soup into your bowl, and top with the jalapeno slices, radishes, cabbage, cilantro, and lime. Not all of it, just generous serving of each.

To eat, well,  you can probably figure this one out. Get your spoon and tortilla chip ready. Mix the cabbage into the soup, along with some of the radishes and cilantro, and dig in. Every bite is amazing. Tender bites of delicious pork pairs ever so nicely with the subtle heat of the stock. Then you can the tender bites of hominy and the crunchiness of the cabbage and radish. Wow! Comfort in every bite. This batch of pozole can be eaten of the course of a few days, and gets better every day.

Classic, comforting, and truly Mexican, this pozole rojo is worth making. Trust me.

I post time and time again on how often I love visiting my local taqueria for a few tacos al pastor, and while I am eating the tacos, I really take interest to what the other locals are eating. Sure, some are eating tortas, or the daily special, but a majority of them are eating bowls of soup with large cuts of tender meats and chunky vegetables, all while having a warm, corn tortilla in the other hand.

After my snooping around and quick investigation, I realized that what the local are eating is really just a great chicken soup, with a couple of different ingredients. More rustic if you will, and it was my goal to make it for my family, and am I glad I did.

Let’s get started.

[Print this Recipe]

Ingredients for the chicken broth (caldo):

• 4 chicken drum sticks, 2 thighs, 4 chicken wings
• 3 cloves of garlic, lightly smashed
• 3 large carrots, cleaned, and cut in half
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 1 serrano chili, smacked with the back of a knife
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 whole bay leaves
• water, enough to cover all of the ingredients

Add all of the ingredients to a large stock pot, bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to a simmer, and let it cook for about two hours. About one hour in, skim the top of any residue, and discard.

Discard all of the chicken and vegetables, filtering it as much as possible. If you can let this cool, and place in the refrigerator overnight, that would be great. This will allow you to easily scrape any of the fat off of the top to have a cleaner broth.

Ingredients for the Soup (sopa):

• 3 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
• 4 whole carrots, but into large bite sized pieces
• 2 whole ears of corn, cleaned and cut into thirds
• 3 yukon gold or russet potatoes, cleaned and cut into large bite size pieces
• 1 lime, juiced
• Fresh cilantro
• Corn tortillas, warmed

Ingredients for Mexican red rice:

• 3 whole roma tomatoes
• 1 cup of long grain rice
• 2 cups of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp canola oil

Start by adding the broth back to your soup pot and bring it to a simmer. Add all of the ingredients except the cilantro and corn tortillas. Continue cooking on simmer until the vegetables become tender. This will take about 45-60 minutes.

During this time, make the rice. Add the whole tomatoes, water, and salt to a food processor or blender. Next, heat a medium pot on medium heat. Add the oil and let it warm through. Add in the rice, and stir, coating all of the rice. Continue to do this until the rice turns a light brown color. Add in your tomato water, give a good stir, cover, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, or until the rice is nice and fluffy. Once cooked, remove it from the heat.

Sounds like a lot, right? It’s not, trust me.

Now you are ready to serve. To a nice soup bowl, add in about one cup of the rice to the bottom, distribute the chicken and vegetables into the broth, and ladle in the nice broth. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve with a lime wedge and some nice, warm tortillas.

The simplicity of the ingredients, which are very basic, tend to change with the flavor of a warm, corn tortilla. Those simple things will get you every time. Now I know why the locals are always ordering the caldo de pollo, and the caldo de res. I hope you enjoy.

Later that night, he returned a very happy kid. He had his Yankees shirt on, along with some fancy sunglasses, and as he began talking about how cool the stadium was. He was probably just as excited to talk about the Chinese restaurant they had lunch at, and even said he had wonton soup, and that it was the best soup ever!

Now our cousin knows good food, and he knows good Chinese food. A connoisseur of dim sum, and have been a big city native, I knew my kid probably had some of the best Chinese food in New York City.

For the last couple of years, my son reminds me of that time. Not so much of the Yankees, as I think I lured him back into being a Milwaukee Brewers fan, but of the time where he had the wontons, and that was my cue to make him my version, of what I think is a great wonton soup.

We have all had wonton soup, and we pretty much all love it. A nice broth with tender, savory dumplings floating in the broth. I personally really enjoy the soup, and it is one of those items on a Chinese menu that is always ordered. I’ve investigated various broths and dumplings and was determined to make my own this past weekend, and well, my son, he ate the majority of the soup.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients: (Serves 6) [Print this Recipe]

• 1 lb of ground pork, 2 tbsp reserved for stock
• 1/4 tsp dark sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup of green onions, finely sliced
• 1/2 tsp corn starch
• 12-18 wonton wrappers, approximately
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tbsp water
• Steamer
• 7 cups of homemade chicken stock, approximately

Begin by adding the pork, sesame oil, fish sauce, white pepper, salt, half of the green onions, and corn starch to a mixing bowl, and do just that, mix. Make sure all of the ingredients have incorporated.

To a smaller bowl, beat the egg, and add the water, and mix.

To make your wonton, lay a wrapper out onto a plate, or in your hand. Add about a tablespoon or less of the mixture into the middle of the wrapper. Lightly brush some of the egg wash along the perimeter of the wrapper. Fold one corner of the wrapper to the opposite side, and pinch to secure. Take the other corner, and do the same, then give it a slight twist.

Repeat this process until the pork mixture is done.

Next get a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the dumplings to a parchment paper lined steamer. Place the steamer to the top of the boiling water, cover, and let these steam for about 10 minutes.

During this time, get the chicken stock into a large pot and bring it to a boil, and toss in the ground pork.   Cook the broth for about 5 minutes, or until the ground pork is fully cooked, then remove the pork with a slotted spoon and discard. Toss in the remaining sliced green onions. When the wontons are cooked, add them to the chicken stock, turn off the heat, and let them sit in the broth for about 5 minutes before serving.

To serve, ladle some of the broth, and a few of the dumplings in each bowl.

I think I scored as both my wife, and dumpling loving son genuinely told me that it was probably better than the Chinese restaurant in New York. My son said my broth was better than the place in New York, and the dumpling was a tie. I think I came out a winner on this one. I hope you enjoy.

I was already into my first batch of chili this season, when all of a sudden a family member posted a picture on Facebook of Cincinnati chili. My mouth was watering right away, probably because I am not only a food, but also, it just looked darn good. Now if you have never had Cincinnati chili, it probably is a must try. It is your classic chili con carne, but has the addition of some really great seasonings, and is cooked slightly different, well, a lot different from your standard chili.

A bit thinner in consistency, the great thing about this chili is that it not only tastes amazing, but you serve it completely different. Commonly referred to as 1-way all the way to a 5-way, the chili holds its own by itself, but when going one way, or how I like it, four-way, this chili will be sure to please.

Lets get started.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 2 lbs ground beef
• Water, enough to cover the ground beef, approximately 4-6 cups
• 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 cups of onion, finely diced
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 5 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tbsp cayenne powder
• 1 /2 tbsp cumin powder
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper

To Serve:

• 1/2 lb of cooked spaghetti
• 1 cup of onion, finely diced
• Sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• oyster crackers
• Red kidney beans, cooked (optional)
• Hot sauce (optional)

Begin by getting a large pot on the stove. Add the ground beef and water, and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to medium, and begin stirring the beef, breaking it up as you stir. Continue this process for about 45 minutes. Skim off any of the crud that might float to the top and discard.

Next, add everything else, giving a good stir. Bring this mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and let it cook for approximately 3 1/2 hours, stirring from time to time.

Now if you are living on the edge and like that fatty flavor, you could go ahead and serve this right now, but instead, I recommend that you take it off of the stove, let it cool, then place in refrigerator overnight. The reason you will probably want to do this is that when you remove the chili the next day, the fat that was cooked off from boiling the ground beef will rise to the top, allowing you to remove all of that fat. So do just that, and remove that thin layer of fat from the chili.

Once you have removed the fat, take it back onto the stove, bringing it up to a boil, then get ready to serve.

Remember now, I went four-way, which means, spaghetti, chili, onions, and cheese:

To serve, add a layer of the cooked spaghetti on the bottom of your bowl. Ladle a generous amount of the chili on top of the spaghetti. Top with onions, and a lot of grated cheese. Place a small handful of oyster crackers on the side, and dig in!

You will be surprised not only on the awesome texture of this chili, but more importantly, the flavor. You get the richness from the cocoa powder, and the clove and cinnamon really stand out. But it is also the texture you get from the onion and cheese that make this chili just melt in your mouth.

Give it a shot, and hope you enjoy the recipe!

Some say that booyah, in its traditional form, takes several cooks, over several days to make. I could probably agree, especially if we all had that type of time on our hands, but remember, we are cold, and need something today, and this is where you can take a classic, start early, and have that traditional dish late in the day, and into the night.

Booyah after all, is a stew that is typically made by first creating your stock, then adding in your proteins and vegetables, simmering, and bringing all of the flavors together. These flavors just scream comfort, and this hearty Wisconsin booyah recipe is something that can be enjoyed by many.

Lets get started.

• 4 beef bones
• 1 1/2 lb beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 4 medium onions, chopped
• 5 ribs of celery, chopped
• 1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp cracked black pepper
• 5 large carrots, trimmed, chopped
• 2 cups of green cabbage, shredded
• 2 cups of fresh green beans, chopped
• 4 large tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cups of corn kernels
• 1 cup of peas
• 10 red potatoes, skin on, chopped
• 1 large lemon, juiced
• 1/2 tbsp worchestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• Water
• Chopped flat leaf parsley (optional)
• Oyster crackers

Enough ingredients right? This is super easy, and just wait, as it is well worth any energy and time spent in making the booyah.

Always begin by having all of your items ready. Begin by getting your stock ready. To a large soup pot, heated on medium to high heat, add in the beef bones, and begin to brown them a bit, only for a few minutes. To this add in about half of the chopped onions. Stir for a minute or two, and then add in your bay leaves. Now is time to add in the water. Add about 12 cups of water. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.

Once your mixture has boiled, add in the stew meat, and the chicken pieces, and simmer for about two hours. Make sure you have enough water to cover all of the meat. If it is not covered, simply add a bit more. As the meat is cooking, skim off any of the junk that floats to the top and discard.

After two hours, remove all of the meat with a large slotted spoon, or spider skimmer and place in a large bowl. Skim of any remaining junk floating at the top, but keep the beef bones in the broth.

Now it is time to begin adding the vegetables, one type at a time.

Begin by adding the potatoes and carrots, cooking for about 15 minutes. Next, the onion and celery, cooking another 15 minutes. Toss in the peas, and cook for about 5 minutes, then add in the corn. After about 5 minutes, toss in the green beans. Add in the chopped tomatoes, give a good mix, and season with a bit more salt and pepper. Continue to simmer the stew for about 10 minutes.

During this time, remove the skin from the cooked chicken, and begin shredding the chicken, as well as the beef stew meat. Once all of the meat has the fat removed, and the bones, and is shredded, add it back into the soup pot.

Give a good stir, bring back to temperature, and continue cooking on low heat for about 30 minutes.

Just before you are ready to serve, add in the juice of the lemon, the soy sauce, and the worchestershire sauce. Give a good stir. Remove the beef bones and discard.

Ladle a good amount into your favorite soup bowls, sprinkle a bit of chopped parsley, and serve the booyah with a nice handful of oyster crackers on the side as well as a lemon wedge.

True comfort, and a really great balance of flavors and textures. Wisconsin does good things, and introducing you to booyah is one only one of them. I hope you enjoy.

I love curry paste, whether it be red or green, with the addition of coconut milk. It could be some of the best gravy when cooked, and poured over rice or noodles. To me, it screams flavor, but also comfort, and so with the little knowledge I had while looking at what these people were eating, I decided to come up with my own broth, creating a really killer laksa.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of large shrimp, shells on
• 1/2 lb of white, flaky fish (catfish or cod)
• 7 cups of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp tamarind concentrate
• 14 oz coconut milk
• 4 oz red curry paste
• fresh bean sprouts
• cilantro springs
• 2 oz bamboo shoots (optional)
• lime wedges
• Sambal chili paste
• Thai Bird’s eye chili (optional)
• Rice noodles, cooked per order

Begin by peeling and deveining your shrimp. Reserve the shrimp and the shells. Heat the oil on medium heat in a soup pot. Once heated, toss in the shells of the shrimp. The goal here is to create the base of your stock, and in our case, a seafood stock. Cook the shells for about 5 minutes, mixing along the way.

Add in your water and the salt, bring to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat to a medium-low, cooking for about one hour.

Now that you have your shrimp stock, remove all of the shells with a slotted spoon, making sure you get all of the shells out. Add in the cod or catfish, and let cook another 20 minutes or so. Using a couple of forks, begin to pull apart the fish in the broth, flaking it into very small pieces.

Let this continue to cook. During this time, take a small sauce pan out and place on medium heat. Add in the curry paste and cook for a few minutes, stirring to break up the paste. Add all of the paste into the stock, and give a good stir. Cover, and continue to cook, letting all of the curry flavor settle in, roughly 20 minutes or so.

Now that the laksa is almost complete, add in the coconut milk, bamboo shoots, and shrimp, giving a good stir.

Bring about 6 cups of water to a boil. Take your rice noodles, in my case, I like to use a banh pho noodle which is a Vietnamese flat noodle, used in soups such as Vietnamese pho. You can find these noodles in Asian markets, and they are now beginning to show up in local grocery stores in the ethnic aisle. Vermicelli is another nice option.

To a large bowl, add about a handful, if not more of the dried noodles. I like to break mine in half, being careful not to explode the noodles all over my kitchen. Add the boiling water, and with some tongs, stir around, cooking the noodles. These will only take a few minutes to cook, so keep an eye on them as they will get mushy if you do not remove them shortly after they cook in the water.

To your serving bowl, add the cooked rice noodles. Ladle in the delicious broth, making sure you get a few shrimp, bamboo shoots, and the cooked fish. Make sure the broth covers the noodles. Top with a generous amount fresh bean sprouts, cilantro sprigs, and serve alongside lemon wedges, sambal chili paste, and a Thai chili for additional heat.

This noodle soup, in my opinion, is the best for breakfast or brunch. A soup that really is good any time of the day, and a soup indeed deserves slurping, the smacking of lips, and the occasional sniffing from the heat of the chili paste.

Growing up, I would watch my dad make his chili. He had it down to a science, and as my standard chili recipe probably does not steer to far from my dad’s recipe, there are just times you want to do something different to a chili, and that is what I love about it. So, as I often do, I think about what ingredients could offer the same comfort of a traditional chili, but make it different, and that is when I decided to make a green pork chili, or what others often refer to as chili verde.

The simple ingredients yield maximum flavors, and really make this chili comforting and extremely delicious.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of pork loin
• 5 tomatillos, wrapper removed, cut in half
• 1 small onion, halved
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2 jalapeno peppers, halved
• 3 poblano peppers
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cups of chicken stock
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 lime, zest only
• 1 cup of corn kernels
• 1 cup of pigeon peas, drained
• salt
• black pepper
• tortilla chips (optional)
• sour cream (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Begin by taking one tablespoon of your olive oil and coat your pork tenderloin. Generously season your pork with salt and pepper. Place the pork onto a baking dish and place into the oven for about one hour and 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let it rest.

Now, increase your oven temperature to 450 degrees. Take your tomatillos, poblano, onion, and jalapeno peppers, and coat with the additional tablespoon of olive oil. Place on a lined baking sheet and put it into the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes or until you have a nice char on the vegetables. Remove after you have charred the vegetables and let them cool.

Remove the outer skin from the poblanos, and slice open to remove all of the seeds. Remove the stems from both the jalapeno and poblano peppers.  If you want less heat, remove the seeds from the jalapeno peppers, otherwise leave them in.

Place the onion, peppers, tomatillos, honey, zest, and garlic into a blender or food processor. Add about 1 cup of the stock to the blender, then pulse everything down until you have a green sauce. You want to remove all of the chunks.

Add this to your soup pot and add in the additional chicken stock. Toss in the corn and pigeon peas. Bring to a boil. During this time, take your pork loin and cut it into bite sized pieces, placing those in the pot. Give a good stir, cover, and reduce the heat, cooking for about 10 minutes or until everything is cooked through.

When you are ready to serve, add a bit of tortilla chips to the bottom of a soup bowl, ladle in the chili verde, and top with a dollop of sour cream.

What you end up with is a delicious bowl of chili, packed with just the right amount of heat, and great texture from the corn and pigeon peas.

Chili is one of those one pot meals that is perfect for any occasion, however, I wanted to steer away from my traditional game time chili, and offer up something that would really surprise everyone, and boy did it ever. This recipe starts as most chili recipes do, however adding a few extra ingredients and spices really, I think, made this one of the better chili recipes I have made in some time.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef
• 3 Spanish Chrorizo links, diced
• 1 1/2 lbs of chuck roast, trimmed, and cut into bite sized pieces
• 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 15 oz can of black beans, drained
• 15 oz can of chili beans, drained
• 15 oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp Mexican oregano
• 3 tbsp chili powder
• 2 chipotle peppers with adobo sauce, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups of frozen corn kernels
• 1 1/2 cup of water
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• Shredded cheese (optional)
• Tortilla chips (optional)

Begin by prepping all of your ingredients. On medium to high heat, add a large stock pot to the stove, and toss in your oil. Let this heat up for a minute or two, then toss in all of your meat. The goal is to brown your meat nicely. Once the meat is browned, cover, and pour off any of the fat, then return it back to the stove top. Toss in your onions and garlic, and cook for a few minutes.

Next toss in all of your seasonings, and give a good mix, cooking an additional few minutes.

Now is the time to add in the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and water, giving it a good stir, and letting it come to a boil. Next, add in the beans, chipotle peppers, and the corn. Give a good stir, cover, and reduce the heat to low, cooking for at least a good hour before serving. I typically let it cook for a couple of hours on low so all of the flavors merry, and letting the beans and meat get nice and tender.

Every bite of this chili is just loaded with great flavor, and texture. The addition of corn, and chipotle peppers, just gave a great balance of heat that balanced nicely with the creaminess of the beans. If you want to top the chili with a bit of cheese and crushed tortilla chips, go right ahead, as that is what makes eating chili fun.  If you are looking for new chili recipe, this one is a definite must make. Hope you enjoy.